Fracking calls for water-use management

This year's cool, rainy spring made drought seem far away, relegated to news reports of drought-wracked areas of the nation's West and Midwest. But recent history in Pennsylvania has featured droughts, which makes planning for limited water resources all the more important given the natural gas boom here.

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poconorecord.com

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Posted Jun. 24, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Posted Jun. 24, 2013 at 12:01 AM

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This year's cool, rainy spring made drought seem far away, relegated to news reports of drought-wracked areas of the nation's West and Midwest. But recent history in Pennsylvania has featured droughts, which makes planning for limited water resources all the more important given the natural gas boom here.

Drilling for natural gas deep in Pennsylvania's Marcellus shale requires a process called hydraulic fracturing. So-called "fracking" takes millions of gallons of water, which operators inject along with fine sand and chemicals into the ground to crack open the shale and release the gas. In some places in the West, which has experienced a persistent, severe drought in recent years, gas and oil drilling now competes with agriculture for a share of this finite resource.

An Associated Press analysis found that most counties in Arkansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Wyoming where fracking is occurring are also experiencing drought as designated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This new competition for water has pushed up prices, in some cases prohibitively high for farmers, and drilling operations are affecting already compromised aquifers and rivers in drought-affected areas.

While drillers tout the prospect of making the nation energy-independent, others worry that such intensive water use could mean important aquifers never get recharged, both in farming regions and more populated areas.

To their credit, some drilling industry companies are developing water recycling systems that will enable them to frack with gray or brackish water, lowering their demand for potable water necessary for farming or other human use.

And in some states regulators are setting limits on how much water energy companies can use during droughts.

Pennsylvania ought to be looking at such rules. National Climatic Data Center records show that between 1895 and 1999, the Pocono region experienced 18 episodes of severe to extreme drought lasting at least two months. One of the most severe was a 22-month period from 1964 to 1966.

The Upper Susquehanna region, where fracking activity is intensive, went through 22 drought episodes, several of them longer than here in the Poconos.

No one should assume water will always be abundant in Pennsylvania. Legislators and government officials have an obligation to develop reasonable guidelines now to make sure the quantities of water the energy industry uses don't jeopardize the No. 1 driver of the state's economy — agriculture — or deplete precious drinking water supplies. During the next drought, the citizens of Pennsylvania will be glad they did.